A Laird for All Time by Angeline Fortin

don’t mind a quick walk together?”
    “ Nae at all.” He looked relieved and offered his arm to Emmy.
    “Shoo, Mr. Cranky-Pants .” Emmy waved off Connor with a frown as he scowled down at them.  “We don’t need any of your negative vibes around right now.”
    “Cranky-Pants?” Connor echoed with a haughtily raised brow.
    “Just go!”  She made little shooing motions with her hands .  “Go!” He shrugged and remounted in a smooth motion that impressed Emmy.  Taking the reins for Ian’s mount, he spurred them into motion back to the castle.
     
    Connor wondered what had just happened.  He had not intended to fight with Heather today.  The visit to the neighboring estate had been an uncomfortable one and he had been awash with irritation over that unpleasant duty on the entire ride back to Duart.  And there had been Heather.  Walking along the coast, looking lovely beyond belief in the afternoon sun with her cheeks and nose reddened by the cold winds.  She had looked so relaxed and comfortable… so cheerful in fact that she had immediately rubbed him the wrong way.  Why should this be so easy for her when she was turning his life upside down?  She did not seem to care that she had interrupted the course of his life with her return at all.  And then to deny her identity once again!  It had been the last straw.  Connor galloped back toward the castle, aware that Heather and Ian’s eyes followed him along the way.  He fumed silently once again.  And what were negative vibes?

Chapter 12
     
    “What are negative vibes?” Ian asked, unable to contain his curiosity as they turned to stroll farther north.
    “You know,” Emmy said, waving her hand, “his nasty little habit of bringing everything down to a fight when others just want to go happily along their way.”
    “Ye ha’ developed an interesting way of speech in yer absence,” he noted.  “It is most curious.”
    “Let’s not have you take up his fight right now, ok ay?”
    “He likes ye , ye ken?” Ian said, allowing the subject to change.
    Her heart raced like a schoolgirl’s at the possibility, though her mind denied it.  “What?  That’s ridiculous!”  Want her, yes.  Like her, no.  Nobody ever said the two had to go hand in hand.  There was certainly little else about her that he seemed to care for.  Indeed, all they had done so far was fight. “Not that I believe you, but why do you say that?”
    “Oh, small comments he has made today .” Ian shrugged.  “He seems to admire yer forthright commentary and new earthiness.”
    Emmy’s eyes widened in surprise.  It was hard to imagine Connor voicing admiration , though she had seen it in his eyes, but assumed it was only admiration for her looks.  Other than that, his dark eyes had reflected either anger or desire every time she had met his gaze the previous day, and even just now.  He was angry with his wife and it showed.  He wanted her… and it showed in the deep turbulent heat of his brown eyes.  He wanted her and it angered him more.  When he’d had her backed up to the wall the night before, the want and need in his eyes had been so compelling she had almost lost her self-control.  “He does?” She tried for a nonchalant tone.
    “ Aye, ye used to be much more like Dorcas.  More serious-minded.”
    “Hmm .” She shook the lustful thoughts off and tucked that all away to think about later. “Well, Dory is what I wanted to talk to you about.  But first, I am curious, how did you meet?”
    “Dorcas arrived about ten months or so after ye left… verra well,” Ian sighed at her arch look, “after Heather left.  She had nae been able to come for the wedding as their mother had been ill and then she stayed home afterward to nurse their father through the illness that ye… Heather’s departure had prompted.  An illness of the heart, I understand.  When he died, the properties nae entailed came into Connor’s possession as her sister’s